A 2008 speech of Labour Party leader Shahid Malik, praising achivements of Muslims in the United Kingdom is being shared with a false claim that he is the newly appointed 'Justice Minister' in the current United Kingdom government.
BOOM found that the man in the viral video is Shahid Malik who served as the Parliamentary Under-Secretary in the Ministry of Justice till 2009.
In the viral video, Malik can be heard talking about his involvement in getting assistance for Bangladesh, Pakistan, Palestine, Somalia. He further says, "I am proud of the achievements of Muslims in this country from 97. In 1997 we got our first Muslim MP, in 2001 we had two Muslim MPs. In 2014 we’ll have 16 Muslim MPs. At this rate the whole parliament will be Muslim. But you know we have four Muslim MPs. There should be 20 Muslim MPs in parliament and inshallah very shortly we will see that."
The video is being shared with the caption, "#HowMuslimCanYouBe, The new minister for labour and social welfare in the UK. The fall begins from here. The beginning of the end for the United Kingdom." The text at the start of the video reads, "Shahid Malik Justice Minister Labour MP for Dewsbury"
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FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the man in the viral video is a former minister and not currently serving in the Justice department of the United Kingdom government as being falsely claimed.
The new UK government led by Prime Minister Keir Starmer has appointed Shabana Mahmood from the Labour Party as the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice.
We ran a keyword search with "Shahid Malik, UK minister," and found that Malik had served as the former Parliamentary Under-Secretary in the Ministry of Justice till 2009, during the previous Labour Party government.
In 2007, Malik became the first Muslim minister in the UK government. He first served in the Department for International Development from 2007 to 2008, then at the Ministry of Justice from 2008 to 2009 as the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice, and later at the Department for Communities and Local Government from 2009 to 2010.
Malik lost his seat from Dewsbury in the House of Commons to Simon Reevell of the Conservative Party during the UK general election in May 2010, in which the Labour Party lost power to the Conservative Party.
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Malik's viral speech video is from 2008, when he addressed the Global Peace and Unity conference organised by the Islam Channel. The original video, uploaded December 2008 on Youtube, can be seen below.
